John Osborne

Once heralded as the greatest British actor of his generation, Nicol Williamson was also a legend for stormy onstage behavior that included calling off a performance of "Hamlet" mid-speech because he was too tired to go on.

"I'll pay for the seats," he later recalled telling the audience in 1969, "but I won't shortchange you by not giving my best." And then he walked off.

He made his name as the faltering attorney in playwright John Osborne's "Inadmissible Evidence" in the mid-1960s in London, rode the role to a Tony Award nomination on Broadway and re-created the part in the 1968 film.

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Once heralded as the greatest British actor of his generation, Nicol Williamson was also a legend for stormy onstage behavior that included calling off a performance of "Hamlet" mid-speech because he was too tired to go on.
"I'll pay for the seats," he...